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Thanks to both of you for trying to shed light on this.
It would be interesting to know just how bad the club’s debts were when Whelan took over. Because, although large at the time, they’re probably only comparable to the “small” debt he left us with after writing off his loans.
The difference, though, being that we owned our own ground then.
I’ve loved the whole ride into the Premier League. But it’s beginning to look like one family’s reckless adventure, with all the risk loaded on the club’s side.
The debts were pretty bad prior to Whelan taking over, comparatively speaking anyway. The fact Latics owned Springfield Park was irrelevant really as although they could have sold it to pay off debts, had they done so in the Kenyon/Gage era that I experienced they’d have had nowhere to play and very little money (or ability to raise any money) to pay for a new place.
I’m sure that I remember reading in the past that Brenda Spencer said the club had so little funds in the bank that there was a period one summer where they couldn’t afford to buy paper for the fax machine (that was possibly during the 1994 close season when Swain was manager).
I’m also sure that I remember reading that, shortly before buying Latics outright, Dave Whelan had on several occasions stepped in to pay players & staff wages at the club when there wasn’t any money to do so. He did this on the encouragement of Duncan Sharpe who was also the chief arm twister in getting him to buy the club.In terms Latics nowadays they are in a far better place financially than they were back in 1995.
On top of that, holding companies like Wigan Athletic Holdings are very common place. It’s used as a way of significantly reducing a company’s exposure to the effects of going belly up. The Virgin Group is a holding company & it just means if for example Virgin Airways went belly up creditors would only be able to claim against Virgin Airways assets & not the Virgin empire as a whole.
Likewise if Latics were to go into administration, no-one could force the sale of the stadium to pay off what Latics owed.
The key is the tie in between Latics & the holding company but I wouldn’t agree with your analogy that it looks like a reckless adventure with all the risk loaded on the club’s side coz if Latics did go belly up tomorrow the person who will have lost the most (money wise at least) would be WhelanI’m pleased we can have a grown-up conversation about this and, though I obviously didn’t pay enough attention to the accounts over the years, I was there too throughout Whelan and Gage, and Heathcoate and Freddie Pye, for that matter.
So the holding companies are set up to protect the club, are they? Does that mean that the club has representation on their boards to prevent them from acting against their interests?
Club assets being held by assorted mysterious companies has been the undoing of a few clubs, most notably Saturday’s opponents Leeds, owned – or were they? – by ex-Latics director Ken Bates. What I’d like is some transparency, then we could judge Whelan’s record and the club’s long-term sustainability for ourselves.
He’s doing a question and answer session on the pitch at 2.45pm tomorrow, followed by his final rendition of ‘I’m from Wigan me’ on the bucket base.
Get to your seats early :)
So the holding companies are set up to protect the club, are they? Does that mean that the club has representation on their boards to prevent them from acting against their interests?Club assets being held by assorted mysterious companies has been the undoing of a few clubs, most notably Saturday’s opponents Leeds, owned – or were they? – by ex-Latics director Ken Bates. What I’d like is some transparency, then we could judge Whelan’s record and the club’s long-term sustainability for ourselves.
No – holding companies are set up to protect the interests of whoever owns the holding company, which might be what you’re getting at or trying to establish.
The relationship between Wigan Athletc AFC Ltd & Wigan Athletic Holdings Ltd is probably very transparent as it will all be there in the accounts of both companies – just you probably need a better knowledge of company law & accounts than either of us (& certainly me) have.
I think I know enough though to know it that it would be quite possible for someone to buy the DW Stadium & not by Latics
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